This past Fall, Herman Wallace of the Angola 3 made news headlines around the world when his conviction was overturned and he was dramatically released from prison after 41 years in solitary confinement. At the time of his release on October 1, 2013 he had been fighting terminal liver cancer for several months. Three days later, on Oct. 4, Herman was surrounded by loved ones as he passed on at a friend's house in New Orleans, Louisiana.

As reported by Democracy Now, one of the final things that Herman said was, "I am free. I am free." Twelve years previously in 2001, after 29 years in solitary confinement, Robert H. King was the first of the Angola 3 to be released. Today, Albert Woodfox remains the sole Angola 3 member still in prison. Currently housed in solitary confinement and forced to endure routine body cavity searches at David Wade Correctional Center in Homer, LA, Albert's conviction has now been overturned three times.

On Oct. 15, Amnesty International declared: "Herman died a free man. Let's help Albert live as one." Amnesty's call to action quoted a message from Herman released during his final few weeks: "I want the world to know that I am an innocent man and that Albert Woodfox is innocent as well...The state may have stolen my life, but my spirit will continue to struggle along with Albert and the many comrades that have joined us along the way here in the belly of the beast."

In their statement, Amnesty also cited "significant flaws in the legal processes that have kept both Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace behind bars. These flaws include inadequate legal counsel, prosecutorial misconduct, lack of physical evidence, potentially exculpatory evidence lost by the State, evidence that the key eyewitness testimony was paid for in bribes by the State, other eyewitnesses' retracting their testimony, and now racial discrimination. To appeal this latest ruling would compound injustice and delay the legal process by years, as the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals would have to rule before justice could be served."

(PHOTO: Robert H. King met with US Congressman John Conyers in May, 2013.)

On July 12, a letter citing the Angola 3 case was sent to the Department of Justice by Congressmen John Conyers, Jerrold Nadler, Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, and Cedric Richmond, calling for an investigation of the Louisiana prison system. That same day, just hours after the letter's release, LA's Hunt prison reduced Herman Wallace's classification from maximum to medium security and transferred him out of solitary confinement into the more humane conditions of a 10-bunk dorm inside the prison hospital, where he had access to a day room, and did not have to wear leg irons. Because of the transfer, Herman's quality of life was improved during his last few months.

At an unrelated hearing on Nov. 13, Albert testified before the same U.S. District Judge, James Brady, who has twice overturned Albert's conviction. As Lauren McGaughy reported for the Times-Picayune, this hearing was for Albert "to argue against what he says are daily strip and cavity searches he undergoes at the hands of prison guards. Woodfox and his legal team say the searches are in violation of a 1978 consent decree issued by then-U.S. District Court Judge Daniel W. LeBlanc that ruled these searches violated the rights of inmates and must be curtailed and, in many cases, ceased."

An editorial written for the Times-Picayune by Jasmine Heiss of Amnesty International, remarked that "in a strange twist of irony, it was Mr. Woodfox's previous lawsuit against the state that set this precedent." Heiss wrote further that the 1978 precedent resulting from Albert's lawsuit, "which lasted more than 30 years, came to an abrupt end when Judge LeBlanc died in March, and the strip and cavity searches quickly resumed both for Mr. Woodfox and others housed on his tier at David Wade Correctional Center. Mr. Woodfox endures strip searches as often as six times a day. He and his attorneys tried to resolve this without litigation for months to no avail. Now they have turned to the court to step in." Judge Brady's ruling on this matter is still pending, while Albert remains in solitary and the routine strip searches continue.

"As a faith leader, I am here to share the religious community's strong support for the immediate release of Mr. Albert Woodfox, and to call for an end to the immorality and inhumanity of his confinement...Last year, we witnessed the inhumane treatment of Mr. Herman Wallace, released just days before his passing after over forty-years in solitary confinement. The experience of Mr. Wallace, and Mr. King with whom I stand today, tells a devastating tale of the immorality and indignity of our justice system. Even as I speak, we remember that over 80,000 men, women and youth in U.S. prisons, jails and detention centers are subjected to solitary confinement on any given day, detained in a cell alone for 23 hours a day for months, years, decades. Such conditions have long been considered a form of torture. People of faith recognize that solitary confinement denies the essential God-given need for community and destroys not only the individuals subjected to such conditions but also our families, communities and the loved ones of those subjected to such inhumane treatment."

In this interview with Rev. Dr. Bates, she discusses the Jan. 7 hearing as well as a recent order banning her from David Wade Correction Center, where Albert is housed, in her hometown of Homer, LA.

(PHOTO: Artwork displayed at Herman’s memorial service, w/ Herman calling for Albert's release. See more photos of the service by Ann Harkness.)

Angola 3 News:Could you please tell us about your work over the years inside prisons and around criminal justice issues?

Patricia Bates: Over the last forty-two years I have volunteered off and on in prisons and jails, mainly in NW Louisiana in various capacities as a literacy and GED tutor and also as a worship leader, supporter of inmate organizations, and Kairos (Outside and Inside) retreat leader and supporter.

About ten years ago, after moving to Homer, near David Wade Correctional Center, I created a nonprofit interfaith restorative justice ministry that has helped to fund Victim-Offender Dialogues thru the Louisiana Department of Corrections. Our nonprofit, Seeds of Light, provides (1) support of various kinds to offenders’ families, (2) ministers in reentry prison/jail programs, and (3) a variety of services to children and families living in at-risk neighborhoods. We operate a food bank and thrift store and hold regular worship services for those affected by incarceration. In 2009 Seeds of Light was recognized with a Governor’s award for excellence for humanitarian service to the community.

Additionally, as an ordained deacon in The United Methodist Church and the Peace with Justice Coordinator for Louisiana’s United Methodists, I advocate at the national level on a variety of restorative justice issues including opposition to the Death Penalty through People of Faith Against the Death Penalty (PFADP) and opposition to extended solitary confinement through the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT).

A3N:When did you first begin speaking out about Albert Woodfox’s case?

PB: NRCAT asked that I advocate on behalf of Mr. Albert Woodfox and asked me to serve as NRCAT spokesperson on his behalf at the October 21, 2013, Baton Rouge press conference and at the January 7, 2014, press conference in New Orleans following the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals hearing.

In both cases I spoke as a matter of conscience based on biblical social justice principles. Jesus said that what we do to the least of these, the poor, the hungry, the imprisoned, etc. we do to Him. I am a passionate believer in the sacred worth of every human being. As a person of faith. I must do all within my power to see that our justice system operates out of the principles of restorative justice rather than retributive justice.

Extended use of solitary confinement makes healthy restoration a near impossibility. For that reason, I am convinced that extended use of solitary confinement constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. In short, it constitutes torture.

A3N:When were you first notified that you were not allowed to return to David Wade Correctional Center?

PB: Shortly after the Oct. 21, 2013 press conference I received a phone call from David Wade Correctional Center that I could not continue to serve as a volunteer there.

A3N:Were you given a reason for the dismissal?

PB: I was given minimal explanation but can only assume, given the time line, that my advocacy somehow violated prison guidelines for volunteers.

A3N:How will this dismissal from David Wade affect your prison ministry going forward?

PB: As a matter of conscience I must speak up when I perceive an injustice such as Mr. Woodfox’s confinement to solitary for over forty years. Animal rights advocates would be outraged if animals received such treatment. How can we turn a blind eye and refuse to speak out when children of God are treated so inhumanely?

My dismissal from Wade cannot short-circuit my faith commitment to continue to work for justice. It simply means I am to work on the outside rather than on the inside.

A3N:This week, on January 7, you attended Albert’s oral arguments before the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Do you have any reflections on what transpired there?

PB: As I sat in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and listened to arguments from both sides, I listened very closely with the assumption that both sides were represented by people of good will who simply had different views regarding the issue of whether or not objective race-neutral criteria had been used in the grand jury selection process in West Feliciana Parish in the case of Mr. Woodfox.

When the issue of literacy was raised, I became especially interested as I have a Ph.D. in English and taught college-level English, in addition to prison literacy, for over thirty years of my professional career before becoming an ordained minister. I am keenly aware of the unjust bias that is attached to how minorities use the English language and the unfair disadvantage this can create in minority communities.

--Angola 3 News is a project of the International Coalition to Free the Angola 3. Our website is www.angola3news.com where we provide the latest news about the Angola 3. We are also creating our own media projects, which spotlight the issues central to the story of the Angola 3, like racism, repression, prisons, human rights, solitary confinement as torture, and more.

3 comments:

Patricia Bates is NOT the Saint she is making herself out to be. She single handedly obliterated my college dreams. She wants to speak of "unjust bias" and "unfair disadvantage" when given an audience but open the door to her time spent as an English professor at LSU-S and you will find her own use of unfair disadvantage to the detriment of an undeserving student. Where was her so called 'faith commitment' then? Where was her desire for promoting what is right?

Angola 3 Basics

42 years ago, deep in rural Louisiana, three young black men were silenced for trying to expose continued segregation, systematic corruption, and horrific abuse in the biggest prison in the US, an 18,000 acre former slave plantation called Angola.

Peaceful, non-violent protest in the form of hunger and work strikes organized by inmates caught the attention of Louisiana’s elected leaders and local media in the early 1970s. They soon called for investigations into a host of unconstitutional and extraordinarily inhumane practices commonplace in what was then the “bloodiest prison in the South.” Eager to put an end to outside scrutiny, prison officials began punishing inmates they saw as troublemakers.

At the height of this unprecedented institutional chaos, Herman Wallace, Albert Woodfox, and Robert King were charged with murders they did not commit and thrown into 6x9 foot solitary cells.

Potentially exculpatory DNA evidence has been “lost” by prison officials—including fingernail scrapings from the victim and barely visible “specks” of blood on clothing alleged to have been worn by Albert.

Both Herman and Albert had multiple alibi witnesses with nothing to gain who testified they were far away from the scene when the murder occurred.

“Hezekiah was one you could put words in his mouth,” the Warden reminisced chillingly in an interview about the case years later.

Notably, Teenie Rogers, the widow of the victim, prison guard Brent Miller, after reviewing the evidence believes Herman and Albert’s trials were unfair, has grave doubts about their guilt, and is calling upon officials to find the real killer. "“Each time I look at the evidence in this case, I remember there is no proof that the men charged with Brent’s death are the ones who actually killed him. It’s easy to get caught up in vengeance and anger, but when I look at the facts, they just do not add up,” said Rogers in 2013.

Herman’s conviction was finally overturned in October 2013 by a Federal Judge. Although his trial was riddled with evidence of prosecutorial misconduct and other constitutional violations, it was the systematic exclusion of women from his jury in violation of the 14th Amendment that freed him. Unfortunately he was released in the late stages of advanced liver cancer and only experienced 3 days of freedom. Sadly for Herman, justice delayed was justice denied.

Albert’s conviction has now been overturned three times, most recently in February of 2013 due to a finding of racial discrimination in the selection of his grand jury foreperson. The first two times judges cited racial discrimination, prosecutorial misconduct, inadequate defense, and suppression of exculpatory evidence. He now awaits a ruling from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that will hopefully uphold the Judge’s order, and set him free.

In the meantime, although no longer convicted of a crime, Louisiana prison officials refuse to release Albert from solitary because “there’s been no rehabilitation” from “practicing Black Pantherism.” If they have their way, Albert will die in prison, behind solitary bars. Let us hope the courts disagree.

Louisiana today has the highest incarceration rate in the US—thus the highest in the world.

Three-fourths of the 5,000+ prisoners at Angola are African American. And due to some of the harshest sentencing practices in the nation, 97% will die there.

Reminiscent of a bygone era, inmates still harvest cotton, corn and wheat for 4 to 20 cents an hour under the watchful eye of armed guards on horseback.

We believe that only by openly examining the failures and inequities of the criminal justice system in America can we restore integrity to that system.

We must not wait.

We can make a difference.

As the A3 did years before, now is the time to challenge injustice and demand that the innocent and wrongfully incarcerated be freed.

Cruel and Unusual Punishment

Over a decade ago Herman, Albert and Robert filed a civil lawsuit challenging the inhumane and increasingly pervasive practice of long-term solitary confinement. Magistrate Judge Dalby describes their almost four decades of solitary as “durations so far beyond the pale” she could not find “anything even remotely comparable in the annals of American jurisprudence.” The case, scheduled for a two-week trial beginning on June 2nd, 2014, will detail unconstitutionally cruel and unusual treatment and systematic due process violations at the hands of Louisiana officials.

**We want to remind supporters that Albert is not allowed to receive stamps or cds. Cards and messages are always the best gift, but if you want to send more, the best way is to give some funds to his www.jpay.com account (#00072148) so he can buy stamps, cds or other personal items from the prison store.

Through jpay, he can receive emails, although any photos sent will be black and white. If you send an email, jpay will ask if you want to pay extra for him to have money to respond via email. However, Albert is unfortunately not allowed to send email, so do not choose this option.

A3 in the Courts

Three court cases are pending. Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace are both appealing to have their convictions overturned. The joint federal civil rights lawsuit of Woodfox, Wallace, and Robert King, arguing that their time in solitary confinement is “cruel and unusual punishment,” will go to trial any month in Baton Rouge, at the U.S. Middle District Court.

Kenny 'Zulu' Whitmore

Zulu has been in Louisiana State Prison, Angola, LA since March 14, 1977. He had been in jail since 1975.

After threats and torture if he did not plead guilty, an unfair trial and the use of false information, Zulu was in '77 sentenced to life + 99 years for the 1973 murder of the former mayor of a small town, in which he had no part whatsoever.

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FreeZulu.org

Kenny 'Zulu' Whitmore

“Zulu is a true warrior, Panther, a servant of the people. He has fought a good battle, for so long, unrecognized, unsupported!” --Robert Hillary King

ABOUT ZULU:

I am Kenny Zulu Whitmore. I have been enslaved in one of the most brutal and bloodiest prisons in the USA, Angola, LA, the "last slave plantation". Framed for a murder I never committed I have been in solitary confinement for over 30 years now.....

In December 1973 I was arrested on frivolous charges and held over for a magistrate hearing where a bond would be set. While awaiting my court appearance I found myself in a cage right across from a black man who struck me as a fearsome revolutionary. It turned out to be Herman Wallace. I was impressed with his words of wisdom, which enabled me to better understand the treatment and condition of my community by the police. I felt honored just to have been in his presence. There were others on the unit, but all you could hear was the voice of Herman. We talked all through the night after he learned why I was arrested. He explained that if my concern was to protect the people, my only route of doing so would be to educate myself of the political Kingdom and then organize the people to effectively challenge the ill that cripple the people. I realized my speaking out against drug dealers and police brutality alone would be viewed as a personal war and wouldn't achieve anything.

Herman told me he and others had established a chapter of the Black Panther Party in Angola, to fight against prison corruption. I gave him all my information because what he spoke of was what I needed in my life. I dare say it was my first true political education. The next day I learned he was there on trial for the death of a prison guard. At that time I believed he didn't stand a chance. In the mean time history has proven I was wrong. However, instead of focusing on his trial, he had many questions about community service and conditions. I ended up giving him my name and address. He told me he was officially making me a member of the Angola Chapter of the Black Panther Party. I was very honored but I had no idea what this man expected of me. But I knew about the Panthers and so I went back to the community with the idea of organizing the community against illegal drug trafficking.

On February 19, 1975 I was arrested again. This time charged with two counts of armed robbery of a Zachary shoe store. In June of 1975 all charges were dropped after both victims argued with the judge that I was not the person who did this crime. But I still couldn't go free...Read more here.WRITE ZULU: